Never Too Late
by sagacious-twit
Summary: Really OOCish Zutara songfic. Katara attempts suicide after realizing that Aang doesn't love her. But what happens when a certain exiled prince stops her? Or when they have to fight to stay alive? Implied Taang and Kataang if you really squint. R&R!


**A/N: Hey guys, this is a sappy, OOCish, angsty and adventure/action song fic that I came up with while I was listening to one of my favourite songs, Never Too Late, from one of my fav bands, Three Days Grace! I used some of the song, not all of it. The lyrics are in unquoted italics by the by. This my first attempt at a Zutara, so keep that in mind while you're reviewing.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar, Three Days Grace or their song Never Too Late, although if I did I'd be a _very_ happy girl.**

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**Never Too Late**

_This world will never be  
what I expected,_

Katara ran as fast as she could from camp. _' No, this can't be true! I won't believe it, never!'_ the waterbender screamed in her head. She had just seen what she thought she would never see. Finally reaching the lake near the camp Katara settled down and looked at her reflection in the water as she thought about what just happened. Still shaking her head in denial, she paused as she remembered what happened with crystal clear accuracy.

Katara was just about to go back to camp to tell Aang how she finally felt about him and came face to face with the situation.

Toph kissing Aang.

At first she shook her head in disbelief at the display of affection between the earthbender and airbender. After she got over herself she ran away from camp, feeling like an outsider.

_And if I don't belong  
who would have guessed it?_

As she gazed at her reflection more, she felt her disbelief and anger turn into dread and sorrow. _'If I can't have Aang, then what is my purpose for existence?' _with that Katara knew instantly what she had to do. Grabbing her knife from the sheath on her side she held it up looked at it one last time, thinking suicidal thoughts, as she considered bringing an end to all the pain she has gone through in her life. _'I'll be with you soon mother…'_

Something didn't feel right as Zuko was taking his nightly stroll along the beach. Ever since Zuko had changed his ways, he took to the habit of walking around every night as a way to calm him and reflect on his day. As Zuko continued down the beach he realized what was wrong.

He saw a young woman holding a knife and looking at it longingly. Almost as if… she wanted it to kill herself!

Zuko didn't know who this beautiful woman was at the moment, but he knew that he had to stop her, even if it meant getting himself hurt in the process.

"Wait! Stop, consider what you're doing!" Zuko exclaimed to the young beauty. "Whatever pain you've been put through in your life is not worth ending it!"

"Why?" the woman simply stated.

_Even if I say  
It'll be alright  
Still I hear you say  
you want to end your life…_

When she turned to face him, Zuko gasped at the identity of the young woman as she turned to face him. As he realized that it was Katara his blood ran cold. Here in front of his face was the woman he had fallen in love with ever since he first saw her.

"B – because, I know what it's like to be in pain, I've been through it all before." Katara never knew that Zuko had suffered so much pain; she thought that he had only inflicted it, until she saw the pained look in his eyes when he stared at her. With the realization that she was going to kill herself over something so trivial, Katara dropped her knife, went into Zuko's open arms, even though he was the enemy, and sobbed uncontrollably against his chest.

Zuko could hardly believe it, here was the woman he loved sobbing in his arms. All Zuko could think to do at that time was to keep on comforting her and just be there for her, even though she still thought of him as the enemy. When Katara sobs lessened Zuko thought that now was the time to try to ask what was causing her so much pain that she would consider committing suicide in the first place.

"Someone who I love doesn't love me!" she managed to get out as she started to sob again.

"But is that really a reason to kill yourself! What if someone else loves you, then what would that person do?" Zuko said slightly angered that she would kill herself just because of unreciprocated love. He stopped shortly after saying this and stared down at her.

"Do you really love me Zuko?" Katara asked surprised and happy at the same time.

Something happened just as Zuko opened his mouth to reply to her question.

_Now and again we try,  
to just stay alive!  
Maybe we'll turn it around,  
'Cause it's not too late  
It's never too late…_

Arrows and shurikens just missed them as they got up and ran for their lives.

_'There's only one person who could do this,'_ Zuko thought as he was carrying Katara bridal style, he didn't want Katara to drag behind him so he thought it was better to carry her. _'Azula!'_ was Zuko's last thought before the person of his very thoughts instantly conjured up in front of him, blocking his only way out.

"Tsk, Tsk Zuzu. I thought you'd be harder to find and capture, but it seems I thought wrong." Azula drawled before she sent lightening at him through her fingertips. Zuko managed to dodge the attack but barely, as he was still carrying Katara. Katara motioned for him to let her down so she could fight, words would take too much precious time. She opened her flask and whipped Ty Lee, who was going to jab her left arm, with a well-placed water whip causing the acrobat to fall unconscious. 'One down, two to go.' thought Katara as she turned around to throw ice daggers at Mai. Mai however, dodged them easily, as she was a weapon specialist, and threw more shurikens and some kunai at the waterbending master.

This time, Katara wasn't so lucky.

Katara managed to dodge almost all of the shurikens and kunai, some however graced her skin and some were plunged deeply into her tanned skin. There were two shurikens in her left leg and one kunai in her upper right arm. Katara screamed in pain as she realized what had happened, yet she had no time to pull them out as she was trying not to get hit by Azula's lightening.

Zuko wasn't having much luck either, as he dodged another onslaught of shuriken and his sister's lightening. He knew his sister didn't want him as much as she wanted the Avatar. Even though he used to want to capture the Avatar, he didn't now and wasn't about to let his sister capture him or hurt Katara.

But as he looked at Katara, he realized that she was hurt and fighting a losing battle.

Nevertheless they had to fight. It was either they fight, or end up being captured or killed with the Avatar.

_'Wait! Why do I care about the Avatar?'_ but then Zuko realized that he started caring about the Avatar the second he fell in love with Katara, as he was running towards her to prevent her form being hurt anymore by Mai's weapons.

Just as he reached Katara's side though she collapsed on her knees and fell face first in the ground.

"No!" Zuko screamed as he realized he was too late.

He wanted to pull Katara in his arms and hug his lost love, but he didn't have time to do that as Mai and Azula worked in tandem to bring him down.

Angered, Zuko unleashed a powerful wave of fire that Azula quickly dodged but Mai was burnt and knocked unconscious from the heat and force of the fire.

"Well, well Zuko, it seems that you're more powerful than I initially thought. Why waste your talent trying to save that peasant? Come back to dad and he'll restore you're honour. So what is it Zuzu? Your honour or that peasant? It's your choice."

Zuko paused in mid-fight as she uttered those words. But then Zuko used his brain before fighting. For once…

_'Of course,'_ Zuko thought determinedly, _'she's going to try and use verbal tactics now that I've worn her and her friends to the bone, well it's not going to work on me this time!'_.

As Zuko finished thinking he resumed his previous fighting and tried to whip his sister with a mighty fire whip.

Azula dodged most of it this time.

The whip struck Azula on her left leg however; she noticed this as she landed from jumping to dodge it. She would've ignored it, but it was just too deep to ignore.

Zuko noticed this as he kept on sending whip after whip of relentless fire at her. She dodged them for the most part, but she knew as well as Zuko that she couldn't keep this up forever.

Finally, a stray whip hit Azula firmly in the chest and sent her plummeting down to the ground unconscious.

Once Zuko was sure that Azula and her friends were really out cold, he quickly ran to Katara. Only to come to grips with the harsh realization that she was dead.

"No, this can't be! How could've I let this happen!" Zuko sobbed as he held Katara close to his body.

Suddenly, he heard her faint whisper as she became conscious again.

_"Zuko, put me in the water."_

Zuko was speechless and cried tears of joy as picked her up snuggly against his body and put her in the water like she told him to.

The water started to glow as Katara was put into the shallow waters of the lake.

Katara then began to stand up as she was fully healed from the water. Zuko was amazed. She looked like she didn't even get hurt at all!

Katara walked back to Zuko and as he wrapped his arms around her she asked him something.

"You still didn't answer my question Zuko." Katara reminded him in an amused tone of voice.

Zuko just smiled as he hugged her even more and lent down to kiss her.

_It's not too late,  
It's never too late…_

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**What do you think? Review and you get a giant cookie! I just hope you won't flame me that badly!!**


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